thehomeleaguefandomcom-20200213-history
Match 17
Ravenhill Dagoberto Baastad Death Baastad , Kus Jesé Rodriguez , Ayoze Ravenhill , Nacho Cases |goals2 = Tinga Héctor Font de la Torre Defendi Raul Llorente Defendi Black , Beckerman Tello , Donnie Falco Manu , de la Torre |penaltyscore = 4 - 2 |penalties1 = Riski Héctor Font Ayoze Dagoberto Nacho Cases |penalties2 = Donnie Falco Tinga de la Torre Raul Llorente }} Match Report One of the most exciting games this season! Probably since the tie in Match 14. So once again Inter Porto get off to a flying start, Tinga scores an early one again in the 2nd minute, like the previous match where he scored in just the first. Porto make some changes at the back for this game, the new-ish player Sergio Ortega replaces Scardina at the back, Ban comments saying - "I want to test out some new guys." - but will Ortega stick or will Scardina be back? After the early goal, Incheon began there attacks. Usually, like the more recent games, Incheon have been forced to attack from the side, Walter Fernández and Jesé Rodriguez whipping the ball in from the wings, only for Dagoberto and Ravenhill to miss every opportunity, other forms of attack from United comes from players like Riski trying to weave his way through Porto's tough defence. Admittedly, Porto used their chances better than Incheon, even if they didn't have that many during the first half. Once again, Incheon were dominating this fist half, although not as unlucky as their last game. Their attempts paid off when Fernández stuck the ball in from a quick run into the box. The teams were level as half-time neared, then something rather unfortunate happened, Raul Llorente strikes the ball from a corner kick and it finds a marked Cristian Tello from outside the Incheon box, Tello manages to jump high enough to get a strong header on the ball, which goes flying towards the top right corner of the goal. Frick was miss-positioned and was too far out when attempting to get a punch on Llorente's low kick. Héctor Font found the ball on the line, stopping Tello's gigantic header from going in, but in an awkward scramble for the ball, Frick dived for the ball from Héctor's feet as he was trying to clear it from the goal line. The ball unfortunately ended up behind the Incheon goal line, Héctor Font receiving an own goal. That unfortunate event may have caused the Incheon team to lose faith in the game, but somehow when Porto kicked off for the second half, Incheon were stronger than ever, making more and more chances for themselves. After a couple of great attempts, Incheon were looking like the stronger side, despite the quick-play goal that the Inter substitute, de la Torre scored in the 55th minute. Once again it looked bad for Incheon but a goal seemed to be imminent for them. After a great second half where each team seemed to be pressing ever more forward, Ravenhill struck a shot from just inside the box as Riski made a great through-ball pass. The goal was good but stuck weakly, Frick should have saved that easily. The score was 2-3 to Inter Porto and a win for Incheon was fading fast as the clock ticked down. By the 80th minute, Porto were making some excellent plays that almost ended in goals. One of them came from Donnie Falco as he snuck passed the Incheon defense with a nice run and through-ball from de la Torre. Falco hit the bar and it span off to be cleared, for Incheon to make their move. The game was intense as both sides tried to make that crucial goal to change everything. Porto knew that scoring a fourth would propel them forward and scoring twice in the last five or so minutes for Incheon was unlikely, considering their finishing proved poor. One of the best chances of the match for a crucial goal to go in was from Porto, Tinga (who had been on great form) was played a sneaky ball inside the box but, a pass which Tinga would have almost definitely scored, but the ball was intercepted by Death who cleared it out, finding Jesé Rodriguez who pushed pass O'Kane and was clear until Rochemback claimed it before any great chance could play out, but Héctor Font slid in an got the ball back for United, by then most off the players on the pitch had organised themselves in Porto's half. Riski weaved through the Porto players and took a hard shot which was deflected up field, luckily claimed by Ravenhill who passed it up to Ayoze who ran up the wing and crossed it solidly into the box, intended to find Dagoberto who at that time was marked until he dropped back to header the ball in the bottom right corner - right in the 90th minute. At the end of the second half the score was 3 all. Extra time played out much like the first two halves, each side attacking at full force and defending with all their ability. In the 96th minute, Porto took a corner kick, one they had been preparing for (says Ban). Llorente hit a high short kick to the near post where Defendi was waiting. No one on the Incheon team saw this coming but the Porto defender headed it backwards into a tight angle goal. 3-4. Incheon pushed forward, subbing off Ravenhill for Nacho Cases, hoping that fresh legs could win the game for Incheon, all players looked tired, especially the Porto midfield who were looking slack in the middle. Then, just when things were looking bleak, Dagoberto, who hadn't been on top form recently, curled one in one-on-one with the keeper. The game was getting very exciting, two goals in the first half of extra time. In the second half, de la Torre stuck in a fantastic goal in the top right corner which was quickly repeated by Dagoberto on the other side of the field moments later. For the rest of the extra time, all players were growing ever more tired and the chances created on both sides were thinning out. Eventually the ref blew the whistle and the it was penalties. Penalties came as quite a shock to Inter Porto who thought they had this game at the end of the second half of normal time. First up for the penalty kick, the Incheon captain, Riski, who took a lovely touch from the inside of his boot to tuck one home. Donnie Falco, the renowned penalty kick taker showed no mercy and shot a bullet into the top right corner. Héctor came to take an easy one, which could have been saved by Brain easily, but wasn't. Tinga's shot to the left was saved by Frick but Ayoze shot one much like Falco's into the top right corner, de la Torre's penalty wasn't so lucky as he attempted to chip Frick, who caught it with ease. 3-1 to Incheon the penalties stood, and all Dagoberto needed was to finish it but his strong kick in the middle was guessed correctly. Llorente then struck one into to the side net, almost hitting the post. Even though Frick dived the right way, the power and accuracy was too much to be saved. Finally Nacho Cases stepped up and tucked home a neat but easily saveable goal to win Incheon this long and tiresome match.